Shake it up: Reduce the salt content in your holiday menu

Wednesday

Nov 23, 2011 at 2:00 AM

Bill Daley

Thanksgiving dinner remains sacred to most people even though the traditional menu can contain a multitude of dietary sins: Fat, sugar, salt, portions super-sized and way too much booze. There’s not a lot you can do about most of these things; just try to keep Uncle Harry off the sauce. Still, salt is one area where you can try to reduce what you use without being too obvious.

Reducing salt in the diet can lower blood pressure, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, a part of the National Institutes of Health. The institute, based in Bethesda, Md., recommends ingesting no more than 2,400 milligrams of sodium a day, that’s the same as 6 grams of salt a day, or 1 teaspoon. That figure, the agency adds, includes all sodium and salt, including what’s in the product as well as what’s added in cooking and at the table. And one needs to remember to tally up all salts, kosher salt and sea salt included, in calculating one’s daily sodium intake.

Getting salt down to 1 teaspoon a day is a big challenge. Here are some ways to eliminate salt, advises Rachel Johnson, a nutrition professor at the University of Vermont, a registered dietitian and vice chairwoman of the American Heart Association’s nutrition committee.

“Thinking fresh is the biggest thing,” Johnson says. “Start with fresh, fresh, fresh ingredients rather than using processed or canned foods.” Her logic is simple: Fresh ingredients won’t have the salt or other ingredients used in processing foods.

Here are some of Johnson’s salt-slashing tips:

Don’t used canned broth in making your gravy. Make your own from the turkey neck and use that instead.

If you must use canned foods, go for the low-salt or no-salt brands. Read the labels. “Salt” and “sodium chloride” are what you want to look for and avoid, she says.

Avoid using canned soups as a base for casseroles. Johnson suggests updating the classic green bean and cream of mushroom soup combo by using either low-salt soup or replacing it with unsalted slivered almonds.